The Marriott Taipei

[Scroll down if you just want to read about the food!]

Taipei’s newest hotel had its soft-opening in July this year and will officially open sometime this month (at least from the last I heard). The Marriott Hotel Taipei is located in Dazhi, right by the Miramar shopping center and across the street from Raw Taipei. It has one of the largest conference/event spaces in Asia and has just over 300 rooms plus two apartment complexes with apartments for sale. This is great news for me, as a relatively new Marriotts rewards member I am quite excited for Taiwan’s first Marriott property.

The hotel features a heated outdoor pool on the 18th floor with expansive Taipei views, an executive lounge (for elite Marriott members), a gym, massive high-ceiling conference/ event ballrooms, a shopping arcade, and around 4-5 restaurants plus a rooftop Whiskey bar. It also features a nice rooftop garden with a small church for ceremonies. The hotel features probably the highest ceilings in any Taipei hotel, which is awesome. The interiors or modern, chic and clean. The event spaces are very functional and practical, and can be rearranged to suit each event’s needs. The biggest hall can seat up to 1100 guests in a round-table (10 per table) banquet arrangement for say a massive wedding.

The rooms are simple, clean, comfortable, and modern. Amenities are basic but essentials are all there. If you are lucky you get great views of both Taipei 101, the Miramar ferris wheel and Taipei Songshan Airport. There are 4-5 room categories and two bedding options (twin and king). Basically this is one of the nicer, if not nicest city Marriott Hotels I’ve come across, its just a notch down from the JW Marriot Marquis brand, as it felt very close to the levels of comfort and luxury at the JW Marriott Marquis Dubai (which I highly recommend).

 

Food/ The Garden Kitchen Restaurant

Currently, only one restaurant is fully operational, the Garden Kitchen. Unless you also count the Lobby Bar which is also operational. Garden Kitchen features a-la-carte and set menus, a salad bar buffet during lunch, weekend brunch, and breakfast services. This is your typical bistro, casual dining restaurant at any hotel. I was not expecting much when we made reservations here as it is run by the same team and owners as The Sherwood Taipei which has a mediocre Italian restaurant Toscana, but expectations were far exceeded upon dining at the Garden Kitchen. The food is mainly Western, I’d say its American-French fusion with a bit of Taiwanese flare. The food and atmosphere would not be out of place in a hotel in New York City and in-fact for a few moments I had forgotten I was in Taipei. The restaurant features main dining room seating as well as private party rooms.

The Chef is young but skilled and very humble. He has had extensive experience both in top restaurants in Taipei (individual ones as well as in-Hotel ones) and abroad as well. If I recall correctly it is the first time he is running his own kitchen, and from what I can tell he is doing an excellent job!

The dinner menu is both a la carte and set, you can choose a main course (with plenty of meats, seafood and vegetarian options) which come with appetizers and soup. The prices vary depending on your main, but averages at around NTD$2,250-2,500 (USD$69-76). There is also a 3-glass wine pairing option as well as an extensive wine-list and sommelier to help pair a nice bottle with your meal, I would NOT bring my own bottle as the corkage fee here is NTD$2,000 (USD$61) per bottle!!!

My favorite dishes of the night were almost everything, but here are the highlights: Spring Egg, charred corn, truffle wtih pasta pastry wrap; grilled rack of lamb with passion fruit BBQ sauce; bone-marrow filled fillet mignon cooked to perfection; and a caramelized cauliflower soup with foie gras (the foie gras is processed into the soup which adds the flavor but not the often heaviness of the pate). The only dish that was not quite on-point was the Caprese salad, which was beautifully presented but sort of lacked flavor.

There is a Teppanyaki restaurant (Mark’s Teppanyaki) thats due to open next week. I cannot wait to go try it, the Garden Kitchen manager says its a new take on the old-school Taiwanese style Teppanyaki (which is always a predictable set-menu in old-fashioned interiors from the 1980s). And with the exceptional experience at Garden Kitchen, I think the Teppanyaki will be just as good. Other restaurants due to open are a Chinese Restaurant and a rooftop Whiskey Bar (which I am all for as a Whiskey drinker and one for the killer Taipei views).

 

Overall, the Taipei Marriott is an excellent addition to the already over-saturated Taipei hotel market. The rooms, interiors, amenities and facilities are all on-point, well-designed, and well-thought out. The food is excellent and the event spaces are amazing, and quite frankly the best I’ve seen in Taipei (better than the W, Hyatt, Mandarin Oriental, Shangri-La, The Regent…etc). The only hindering factor here is its location out in Dazhi, but that could also be a bonus for the hotel as it is the only international standard hotel in this mini-tech/entertainment hub in Taipei. I cannot wait to check out the rest of the restaurants/bars and to even stay a few nights in the future to rack up on my Marriott points and to fully experience the amenities and facilities.

 

Taipei Marriott

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/tpetm-taipei-marriott-hotel/

#199 Lequn 2nd Road (intersection with Jinye 4th Road), Zhongshan District, Taipei, Taiwan, 10462

Garden Kitchen

Reservations or walk-in

Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner

(02) 2175-7957

 

Happy Travels,

Garythegastronomictraveler